


Flowers, Forest, and Fire

by xanithofdragons



Series: The Dating Misadventures of High School-aged Natori and Matoba [1]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 00:38:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanithofdragons/pseuds/xanithofdragons
Summary: A bored Seiji pesters Shuuichi at an exorcist meeting





	Flowers, Forest, and Fire

**Author's Note:**

> My Natori/Matoba day celebration part 2!

Shuuichi stood in a corner of an exorcist meeting, openly ignored by most of those in attendance, and yet, he knew, whispered about behind his back. It was fine for now. It was a matter of patience and endurance. He knew that, and yet somehow it felt too hot and stuffy inside under the lights surrounded by so many people. It got to where he couldn't stand it anymore, so he slipped out an open door into the cool night air.

He walked a short way from the door and gazed out into the forest surrounding the villa. The forest looked black far enough out. The lights slipping out from the doors and windows from the meeting cast dark shadows of tree against tree. Shuuichi never knew what he'd find in forests. The whole estate on which the villa where the meeting was being held this time was decently warded, though, so he started to relax in the relative quiet outside.

Suddenly, someone, or something, grabbed Shuuichi's arm from behind. Startled, he turned to find what looked like a yokai with two horns and black hair. It was wearing a black robe with red flowers on it over a white kimono. A mask with “seal” written on it covered its eyes. It looked like it was trying to hold back laughter but failed and burst out laughing. He recognized that laugh.

“Seiji?”

“Yeah, it's me,” Seiji managed to stop laughing long enough to say. “Good evening, Shuuichi-san.” Shuuichi sighed. He had overheard some people mentioning that the Matoba clan wouldn't be in attendance tonight, but that almost meant Seiji was more likely to come bother him if it was one of the nights he snuck in disguised. When Seiji was there for official clan business, he was usually too busy and too closely watched to wander around this much.

“What are you doing out here, anyway? Shouldn't you be eavesdropping or looking for something 'interesting'?” Shuuichi asked.

“I think I've already found the most interesting thing here,” Seiji answered.

“Oh? What's that?” At Shuuichi's question, Seiji just smirked at him. Shuuichi got the implication he had missed the first time. _He_ was Seiji's interesting thing and that implication was more embarrassing than the fact that he had missed it. Shuuichi reached for a topic change.

“Anyway... won't someone recognize you?” Shuuichi reached out to lift up the mask covering Seiji's eyes. “This mask only covers half your face.” The villa the meeting was at tonight heavily relied on candlelight and lamplight for illumination, and enough leaked from the windows to cast Seiji's face in a faint orange glow. That combined with his red eyes called to mind the image of a prince watching over the burning kingdom of his enemy to Shuuichi's mind. He dropped the mask, but it fell a little to the side, leaving one eye uncovered. It struck him how well Seiji's eyes and hair went with the red and black of the robe.

“It works well enough.” Seiji folded his arms. “There's an unspoken understanding not to look too hard into the identity of anyone who's hiding it.” 

“Oh,” was all that Shuuichi said. He was barely learning the written rules of the exorcist community, let alone the unspoken ones.

“This disguise is more for yokai, so it's enough if it hides that I'm a human. And covering scent is more important for that anyway.”

Shuuichi could pick up the scent of incense from Seiji's clothes in the night air. “Hide that you're a human?”

Seiji continued, “There's a lot of things yokai will only say to other yokai. Speaking of which, your shiki isn't with you tonight, is it?”

“No.”

“Well I'm sure you've already noticed how useful it is for getting information out of other yokai. Have any information to trade, Shuuichi-san?” Seiji leaned in towards him. 

Even if he had any information to give, Shuuichi wouldn't want to give it to Matoba Seiji. It was bothering him more than he expected not to be able to see Seiji's full expression. Eventually, Seiji leaned back, seeming to give up on getting anything out of him.

“Have you ever been to a yokai banquet?” Seiji said, as though he was changing the subject.

“Why would I want to go to a yokai banquet?” Shuuichi asked.

“It's a great way to get information. Sometimes they trade or compete for useful items, too,” Seiji explained.

“How do _you_ hear about yokai banquets, anyway?” Immediately after asking, Shuuichi worried that had been too pointed and insensitive to say to someone distrusted by yokai based on blood alone.

Seiji seemed unfazed, though. “Using this,” He said, gesturing at his outfit. “Would you want to go to one together sometime? I could lend you a disguise.”

“I think I'll pass.” To Shuuichi, it sounded like it would be as dangerous as it would be fun.

“That's too bad. Well, let me know if you ever change your mind.” Seiji adjusted his mask to cover both his eyes. “We have company out here.” He gestured with his head behind him. Shuuichi turned to see a spellcaster he recognized coming out the door behind him. When he turned back, Seiji was already running off into the woods.

“That wasn't a new shiki of yours, was it?” The spellcaster asked. Shuuichi wasn't sure whether to be glad it was someone he knew. She was one of the few people who regularly spoke with him.

“Ah, no, I don't know whose it was.” Shuuichi lied along the lines of her misconception.

“Really? It sort of seemed like it had taken a liking to you,” she said.

“Is that so?” Shuuichi responded vaguely and then changed the topic by asking how a job the spellcaster had mentioned the last time they had talked had gone. He didn't want to think anymore about Seiji or the things he had said. He didn't want to let Seiji's whims continue to get him pulled any further into the Matoba family's world.

**Author's Note:**

> I got to thinking that the disguise Matoba makes Natsume wear in chapters 53-54 may have been one he wore himself back in the day, so I wrote a high school era Natori/Matoba pre-slash story with Matoba wearing the manga color illustration version of that iconic outfit


End file.
